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March 30, 2012

Well, I'm behind on things and working hard on catching up. Here's one I've just done, catching up on new releases of SoaS and AuroraSim and how to combine them.

Although there have been some problems with the development of AuroraSim, such as the closure and opening of a new site, the development has continued to progress. The latest stable release is 0.5.01 and can be found at http://aurora-sim.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=91:aurora-sim-development-aurora-0-5-0-1&catid=79:news&Itemid=474 . SoaS has undergone some changes, as well. Its incorporated the latest OpenSim release, 0.7.3 and it now gives you the option of choosing between three setups, a single region, 4 separate regions in a 2x2 grid and the usual 4 SRE megaregion that has always come with SoaS. There have also been some changes to ports used. The database, MySQL is now set to use 3307 and the login now uses 9100. This means a couple of new things to edit to get AuroraSim to run with SoaS's MySQL.

So, here's what you need to do now to get AuroraSim to work with SoaS …

First of all, when you unzip the AuroraSim file and start looking for the INI files, you will find that there is no /bin folder. AuroaSim is designed to let you simply copy the unzipped folders and files directly into your current /bin folder, over-writing the old files with their replacements. So, forgive me if I step back and discuss the obvious here, but I want to be sure that everyone is on the same page.

Bear with me on this as it will help you to keep things organized. Create a new folder named whatever you like, though I will call it BaseFolder for the purpose of this post. Inside the BaseFolder create two more, SoaS and AuroraBin, or whatever you like, so long as you know what they are. Now, locate your unzipped soas073 folder, you'll have the right one if you see the mowes.exe and the inifile.exe files. Copy all those files and folders as is to your new BaseFolder\SoaS folder. Now locate your unzipped Aurora0.5.0.1Release folder. In this one you will see 7za.exe and Aurora.bat files along with the various folders and other files that are included. Copy everything as is to your BaseFolder\AuroraBin folder.

Next is editing the .ini files. If you already have an AuroraSim setup, you will likely want to copy your current .ini files over to the new one you are working on. There have been some changes to AuroraSim, though, so your old .ini files may cause problems. I do not know for sure about this, I still have to check that. Give it a try if you want, let me know how it goes. otherwise, you've a bit of work ahead of you. Almost all of the AuroraSim .ini files have been renamed to <filename>.ini.example . The simple solution is to rename the files from <filename>.ini.example to <filename>.ini. But, this is also a good opportunity to fine tune your setup from your old configuration, adding in those things you want and getting rid of those you don't. In other words, you can also open the <filename>.ini.example with your text editor, review the contents of the file, make any changes you need, and then Save As <filename>.ini. Here is the list of locations of the .example files you need to rename;

BaseFolderBaseFolder\AuroraBin\ConfigurationBaseFolder\AuroraBin\Configuration\DataBaseFolder\AuroraBin\Configuration\ModulesBaseFolder\AuroraBin\Configuration\ScriptingBaseFolder\AuroraBin\Configuration\PhysicsBaseFolder\AuroraBin\Configuration\StandAlone
Two of those .ini files are particular to this post. Those files are \BaseFolder\AuroraBin\Configuration\Data\Data.ini and the accompanying MySQL.ini files.

Open the Data.ini file and comment out the Include-SQLite = Configuration/Data/SQLite.ini entry by putting a semicolon at the beginning. Then remove the colon in front of the use MySQL line, which enables the use of SoaS's MySQL setup. Those two lines should look like this;

;; If you want to use SQLite, select this file.
;Include-SQLite = Configuration/Data/SQLite.ini

;; If you want to use MySQL, select this file.
Include-MySQL = Configuration/Data/MySQL.ini

Next, open MySQL.ini and you will see that the passwords are set to ***. Change those to opensimpass.

Now, here's one of the big changes. See where it says "Port=3306"? Well, with SoaS 0.7.0.3, that has been changed to 3307. However, I tried making that change in the file here, but had a problem with registering my region. So, to fix this, you now have to go to your new BaseFolder\SoaS\ folder and then into the mysql folder. Open for editing the my.ini file you will find there. There are two entries to change, the ones designating the port as being 3307. Change this to 3306. This is what you should see once you have done that.

Before -->
[client]
port=3307
# SERVER SECTION
# ----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# The following options will be read by the MySQL Server. Make sure that
# you have installed the server correctly (see above) so it reads this
# file.
#
[mysqld]
# The TCP/IP Port the MySQL Server will listen on
port=3307

After -->
[client]
port=3306
# SERVER SECTION
# ----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# The following options will be read by the MySQL Server. Make sure that
# you have installed the server correctly (see above) so it reads this
# file.
#
[mysqld]
# The TCP/IP Port the MySQL Server will listen on
port=3306

Okay, now on to fixing a minor issue before it begins. AuroraSim now looks for your ExternalHost automatically. For me, this is a problem since I am not always online. This means that I have to have my External Host set to 127.0.0.1. This actually shouldn't be much of a problem (I think) if you use DynDNS or No-IP, but my ISP is a mobility service, so my router stuff is different to configure. And that is something I haven't figured out yet. Anyway, if you are in the same situation as I am, or just simply want to play it safe, then you there is an entry to be changed in BaseFolder\AuroraBin\aurora.ini. Look for the Network section for the Hostname entry and remove the semicolon to enable it. Here's the end result;

;; This doesn't require any changes if you wish to use the automatic finding of the external IP
HostName = 127.0.0.1

To start thing sup, go to BaseFolder\SoaS and double click the mowes.exe file. Don't use any of the others, they won't do anything since they are for the OpenSim version. Next, go to BaseFolder\AuroraBin\ and double click aurora.exe. The usual console window will open and start running.

Head up! You may see a number of red error messages. The first set is related to finding the ExternalHostName. No worries, you changed that when you set the HostName in aurora.ini. Everything runs just fine. The other set is the result of changes that get made to the database. OpenSim defines the columns, rows and entries one way while AuroraSim does it another. So, you get red error messages and then AuroraSim reformats the database. Again, no worries as this database is now dedicated to AuroraSim.